The New York connection: Audition for an Opposition by Paul Sanders
Caribbean Daylight, NY March 2015
It looked like a scene from The Walking Dead.
Zombies. You knew you were in for a treat when they showed up. Equally emotional and comedic,
ramshackled by age, vanquished by capitalists' greed, decimated by a brutal New York winter, this ragtag bunch
of socialist revolutionaries braced the freezing Spring sunshine, waiting in a frenzy for the March Madness.
No olive branches. No songs of Hosannah. Just placards. Ridiculous. Retarded. Stupid. Placards.
"Opposition groups the world over come out to demonstrate and protest their governments; today we see the
government protesting the opposition ....." Moses Nagamootoo. Innovative, intelligent, and brilliantly funny,
Mr. Nagamootoo's punch line forged new terriority in a smart and funny hour with his audience that was more
honest and direct.
The masterpiece of Mr. Nagamootoo's comic relief is his surveillance of the weirdos' early audition outside the
Naresa Palace. Any street-smart junkie would agree. The New York chapter of the PPP's psychological warfare
was crashing on takeoff. But the ridicule came nonstop, like a laugh script right out of a Laff Til Yuh Belly Bust
production.
When it comes to swagger and sizzle, Brigadier David Granger is up to nines. His lovable stream-of-
consciousness delivery, flexing a skill in a certain narration that made him a distinction from Forbes Burnham
was magnificently funny.
"I am not Burnham. I'm David Granger.....I'm the president of the future. I am leading Guyana into the future. I
am not leading Guyana into the past..... we are moving forward, we are not moving backwards," Mr. Granger
told the meeting.
He was talking back from the hall to a tramp's placard outside while simultaneously fielding the same enquiry
from an audience member. It was sheer coincidence; but that come back was a flight on outstretched wings of
hope, confidence. Like a dagger it drove a hole in the heart of the PPP's vampire machinery that has tried so
hard lately to equate him with Forbes Burnham, rigged elections, the turbulent 60's and racism.
"Moving forward ... not moving backwards." The future. All about the future. Will he be able to bring his
unique brand of politics to the national stage? It's what this elections is about. It's what Mr. Granger was
marketing.
The return of expatriates with the know-how as the engine for growth and development; the remaking of a
new society that curbs the runaway crime that has gripped today's Guyana; the halt to corruption as the new
normal; the protection of the environment and the resources of the forest and the rights of the indigenous
people.
This kind of talk that has his foes eyeing his meteoric rise with both awe and fear. All the good stuff like the
Sermon on the Mount. Like the holding of local elections, which is a real pain-in-the-ass issue for the ruling
PPP, locally and internationally. And fixing the "dirty" electors list.
But the obstacles, cagey or dumb, were visible outside the hall. A riff raff rabble rouser held a sign that
scornfully read: Moses Nagamootoo is a Nemakaram. The equivalent of a traitor. Ole story. Ole trick from the
PPP's handbook.
Nemakaram is a multi faceted word with layers of contempt and hatred. The PPP's renewed application by the
hate group in Queens was meant for the East Indians, people like Mr. Nagamootoo who dared to speak out
against Democratic Centralism. The word also lives at PPP stronghold mandirs where Appan Jhaat is espoused
to incite racism and racial voting. Last Sunday, it was meant to ostracize Mr. Nagamootoo.
But it was also Mr. Nagamooto's cue. He took the podium and displayed the details of his life: as a little lad in
the Whim village playing with his fellow Afro Guyanese friends and neighbors and harboring great family
connections, to his years as a young revolutionary under the wings of Cheddi Jagan and his eventual graduation
at being his master's confidant. Nice story.
Nagamootoo's betrayal to the Indian cause is that he spoke too hard and openly about the corruption in his
party. He questioned too forcefully about his comrades' rags to riches phenomena. He knew the PPP had lost
its moorings. The kleptocrats were more united than the workers of all countries.
"This coalition must work ... it has eluded us for 60 years, but it is now a reality.... about being in control of
destiny" Mr. Nagamootoo insisted. Oh yeah? Is that national unity? A government of all, for all, by all?
Something like that, right?
Sounds like racial unity to me. Sign me up, brudda.
The Apaan Jhaatists would have none of that. Ah, ah, aah! The rancor exuded by the wack jobs at the picket
line sounded like a nice, little softcore Ku Klux Klan with an all Indian agenda disguised as a freedom of speech
act. There was an undercurrent of racial animosity. When asked to explain their position, the wingnuts flew
into a frenzied scramble down memory lane and incoherent blabberings.
Epic idiocy. No wonder passerbys mistook them for vagrants dismantling their cardboard houses. One curious
shopper, upon stumbling at the activity, enquired whether there was a new " Soup Kitchen" in the
neighborhood.
The meeting itself was a metaphor for the PPP overseas supporters. Should Guyanese be excited about the
future or being held hostage by the past? Should Guyanese allow the past to overcome the present? Should
overseas Guyanese advance with the speed of civilization and urge their compatriots at home to stay shackled
by the past?
Does the PPP want racial unity? Yes, the kind that you see at the mandirs recently in which the devotees
fought over the money. Yes, unity but only in writing. Not in life as in living with a balance of merit and good
faith in economic opportunity without the partisan clause.
It is the nastiness of the PPP's version of racial harmony that has brought the necessity of coalition
arrangements. And you get a glimpse of their ugly, desperate side on the sidewalks as they were last Sunday.
Listen to Mr. Nagamootoo, listen to Mr. Granger, and there is a certain passion to identify with. A feeling of
hope, of a reawakening of the Guyanese spirit and patriotism that permeated the walls. Both men spoke with
authority, as if they found the city of El Dorado.
If you felt the vibes in that hall you know there's a certain zeitgeist of the times. Those who were once silent
are now registering their protests, exposing their disgust at the PPP while expressing support to this idea of
coalition. Or multi racial politics. People say they're down on that.
These new believers are holding hope that the APNU+AFC will have the perseverance to pursue a program that
actively build bridges across the racial divide. That goodwill and cohesion run across the color spectrum
unhibited.
Mr. Granger and Mr. Nagamootoo both contextualized an economy in fast growth with rigid accountability and
transparency oversight, one that is in total polarization with the current PPP regime.
But again, it is all talk. The PPP had 23 years of empty talk and nothing to show for it, and more talk about
nothing but just talk. This time, the coalition is saying they have got it right. Their tagline: It is Time.
It better be.
